Re-examining Omni (continued)

As I've been thinking about Omni, I started asking myself, what is actually there in his words that I can notice and learn from?

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Omni, being commanded by my father, Jarom, that I should write somewhat upon these plates, to preserve our genealogy—

 2 Wherefore, in my days, I would that ye should know that I fought much with the sword to preserve my people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of their enemies, the Lamanites. But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done.

 3 And it came to pass that two hundred and seventy and six years had passed away, and we had many seasons of peace; and we had many seasons of serious war and bloodshed. Yea, and in fine, two hundred and eighty and two years had passed away, and I had kept these plates according to the commandments of my fathers; and I conferred them upon my son Amaron. And I make an end. (Omni 1:1-3)

I notice that the purpose of keeping the record on the small plates has changed by this time.  It is no longer kept as a repository of the most plain and sacred things, but it is kept to preserve the genealogy.  I checked earlier in the Book of Mormon and it seems that somehow the purpose changed when the plates came to Omni’s father Jarom because Jarom similarly states that he keeps the plates to keep their genealogy, although he adds as an afterthought that another intent is to benefit the Lamanites.  By the time the plates get to Omni, the desire to benefit the Lamanites seems to have been forgotten.  (Was Omni so used to fighting Lamanites by this time that he was ambivalent about writing to benefit them?)

In Omni, I also notice that in verse 3 there are two difference statements about how many years had passed away.  First, 276 years had passed away.  Very soon afterward, “in fine, two hundred and eighty and two years had passed away” showing there was a gap of six years between when the verse was started and finished.  I will venture to speculate that Omni began writing while laid up from war wounds.  Perhaps he was not sure he would survive and wanted to get something down before it was too late.  The way he starts out, it is as if he is about to introduce additional material, but then gives up.  I wonder if the narrative task intimidated him or if the difficulty of engraving on plates was too much.  Perhaps he felt like he didn’t have anything of significance to say that drove him to write. 

and we had many seasons of peace; and we had many seasons of serious war and bloodshed – This seemed curious to me for some reason. It is as if peace and war are conditions that change with the seasons of the year.  (John L. Sorenson argues this was the case in his article “Seasons of War, Seasons of Peace in the Book of Mormon”)  As I was pondering this bit of information and trying to see if there was anything of a spiritual nature that could be gleaned from it, I realized that if seasons of peace and seasons of war have a pattern, then that means they are predictable.  And if they are predictable, then that means we can plan around them both to prepare and to cope better.  (Two quick application questions: How do you think we can plan around the season of political war associated with national elections?  If there is a pattern of contention in our homes, how do we plan around this to strengthen our families?) 

Another thing I notice is that Omni said there were many of these seasons of peace and war.  The very nature of a cycle that repeats is that there is opportunity for learning to take place.  If we can learn something beneficial from each trip through the cycle, then it can become a refining process for us.  But if we learn nothing, then it is just another instance of suffering that leads to bitterness.  And too, who says the cycle has to continue? 

At the end of Omni’s little account, he says this, “I had kept these plates according to the commandments of my fathers..”  Well, when we compare the quality and quantity of Omni’s writings to those of his predecessors, his underperformance is obvious to us.  If he is cheeky enough to call this miniscule scrawl “according to the commandments of [his] fathers,” we may well wonder if this is a desperate self-deception or if this is a sample of the type of obedience he exhibited at other times.  It also causes me to examine my own life and think about what commandments I may claim I am obedient to but actually underperform in.

As you can see, my opinion of Omni swings back and forth.  I want to see good in him from his record, but there is so little record to see!  What do you think?

“I of myself am a wicked man”: Re-examining Omni

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Omni, being commanded by my father, Jarom, that I should write somewhat upon these plates, to preserve our genealogy—

 2 Wherefore, in my days, I would that ye should know that I fought much with the sword to preserve my people, the Nephites, from falling into the hands of their enemies, the Lamanites. But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done. (Omni 1:1-2)

Omni is mostly remembered these days as one who admits his own wickedness and we take his statement pretty much at face value.  I for one have surmised that he was at the end of his life staring into the face of eternity and feeling the pangs of regret.  However, there is a subtlety in the text that I noticed recently that gave me pause and made me realize that judgment of Omni is not so simple.

Notice that he writes, “I of myself am a wicked man..”  I wondered what the difference was between “I of myself am a wicked man” and “I myself am a wicked man.” There has to be a reason that of was inserted in there.  So, I went searching the scriptures, and I found out the phrase “of myself” is used often when a speaker refers to themselves in the natural man without the help of God’s grace or godly wisdom. 

Consider the following elsewhere in the scriptures:

Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. (2 Cor 12:5, emphasis added)

I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man. (Mosiah 2:10, emphasis added)

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Alma 26:12, emphasis added)

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. (Alma 29:9, emphasis added)

31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

32 ¶There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. (John 5:31-32, emphasis added)

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17, emphasis added)

Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (Joh 8:28, emphasis added)

There are other instances when a speaker says they know things “of myself,” (possibly meaning they know for themselves), but the above instances denote speaking on one’s own authority or to refer to the natural man.  

Further, Omni’s own admission may be an argument that he is better than he says he is.  Those given over to wickedness tend to think they are okay when they aren’t, whereas those given to righteousness often are bothered by their own faults and how they are not living up to their view of righteousness.  We have Nephi’s agonized cry of “Oh wretched man that I am!” and his detailed record that when he wanted to rejoice he found himself sorrowing over the sins that so easily beset him.  It may be that Omni’s brief admission, “I of myself am a wicked man and have not kept the statues…as I ought to have done” is a lament in that vein, however brief.  He gives no testimony of Christ, so we don't know if his sense of guilt was swallowed up in faith in Christ or not.

It is too bad there is not more in the record about Omni.  One thing he says is that he wants us to know that he fought much to keep his people safe from the Lamanites, so we know that he was a valiant and courageous warrior.  Perhaps it is his way of saying he is a man of action rather than a man of many words.  Because there is so little of his record, we really can’t make a good assessment of Omni as a person.  We can say that he had a poor opinion of his own virtues and we can make small comments about what little he wrote, yet we know so very little context about what he says that our conclusions are still highly tenuous.  Even what I have said here can only be classed as speculation.

What could I write more than my fathers have written?: A critique of Jarom and Omni

Between the Books of Jarom and Omni there is a regression that is detectible. Jarom says, “I shall not write the things of my prophesying, nor of my revelations. For what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation? I say unto you, Yea; and this sufficeth me.” (Jarom 1:2) So he occupies his time writing about how others preached. It is interesting that he says, “it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts” (v3) but I get the feeling that he is unwilling to get involved because it seems like such a big job. (Perhaps this was the same attitude that he had about writing his prophecies on the plates; there is so much to do that he is overwhelmed.) Throughout his account he speaks as if from the outside, looking in on the preaching and prophesying because he declines to share his own with us.

This suddenly seems like it applies to me. I sometimes hesitate to start writing insight down when I get one that is so hefty I know it will take an hour to get it out. (I am not saying this to boast; I bet you all get your own monster insights that you chew on for days.)

In the next generation, Jarom’s son Omni admits that he himself is a wicked man and has not kept the commandments as he should have. (This makes me wonder if Jarom took the same approach to teaching Omni as he had with keeping the record—there was so much to teach that it was paralyzing, so he did less than he knew he should.) And Omni writes even less than Jarom does and says next to nothing about spiritual things among his people.

Omni’s son Amaron says merely that the wicked were destroyed according to the word of God, then passes the record to his brother Chemish. Chemish only says he’s keeping the record like everybody else and then he passes on the record to his son Abinadom. (Chemish writes like the plates are some sort of guest book that he is signing.) Abinadom drops the chilling false doctrine of sufficiency: “I know of no revelation save that which has been written, neither prophecy; wherefore, that which is sufficient is written.” (Omni 1:11) This is a new low point and it indicates how far gone the Nephites are. If no one knows of any revelation except what has already been written, they are in a very bad way.

Happily, the Lord yanks the record out of this dark pit in a single generation with Amaleki. A mere two verses later, Amaleki tells us of a splinter group led out of the land of Nephi by the first Mosiah with the word of God, with preaching, prophesying, and the power of the Lord’s arm. The gifts of the Spirit are back and the record is living again as a spiritual reservoir, as Amaleki views history through the lens of the gospel. But his spiritual exhortation lasts only two verses as he entreats his readers to believe in spiritual gifts and come to Christ to be saved; afterward he returns to recounting history.

So in Jarom and Omni, we see some people who occupied the plates with things of less importance. Thank goodness it only lasts two pages out of the whole book. Compare the measly unabridged writings in the Books of Jarom and Omni to the vast abridged records of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, and Nephi, about the same number of generations! Alma’s weighty collection of writing shows us that contrary to Jarom’s assertion, more can be written besides what one’s fathers have written.

I have observed that when I don’t write down what happens, it is really hard for me to remember any of it at the end of the month. My husband writes a monthly account for a family newsletter on his side, and if we didn’t look at our calendar (or if I didn’t look at my journal), I really don’t think we would remember anything enough to write.

I suspect the record keepers of Jarom and Omni had this problem; they weren’t writing down things on more perishable media as it happened, so when they got to the end of their lives and found that they had to write something most important on the plates for the benefit of future generations, they had a very hard time without a consistent record of their own to pick the best from.

It seems that we have to have made our large plates before we can distill it down to the small plates.

Update: I put this in cue to post and then the Lord started to show me some things from the Book of Jarom that are special, so it seems I may have posted prematurely.

1) Jarom is the first book to use the term "plan of salvation." Before it is called "the merciful plan" or the "plan of our God" or "the plan of redemption," but Jarom gets the credit for recording this term by which we usually identify it.
2) Jarom points out that those who are not stiffnecked and have faith have communion w/ the Holy Ghost. It seems so simple, but it is true. So if we have faith and we aren't having communion with the Holy Ghost, there is some stiffneckedness that needs to be rooted out of our lives. (Hmm, I'm thinking that self-identifying our characteristics of stiffneckedness is worth its own post..)

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